General Info

Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA) requires that the university establish a policy and adopt and enforce procedures to protect the confidentiality, accuracy, and privacy of the information it collects on its students. The information collected on students may only be viewed by those individuals who have a legitimate “business” need to use the data as determined by the university’s FERPA officer. The responsible officer at Grand Valley is the Registrar.

Who on campus can access student records? At Grand Valley, access to student educational records without prior consent of the student is limited to those faculty, administrators, and staff who individually or collectively, are acting in the student's educational interest, within the limitations of their need to know.

What are education records? Handwriting, print, computer, videotape, audiotape, film, microfilm, microfiche or email – of an institution that contain information directly related to the student and are maintained by an agency or institution or party acting on its behalf.

Education records do not include:
• Private notes in your possession that are not accessible or revealed to any other persons and are not stored in the student's record • Medical records • Employment records when employment is not contingent on being a student, provided the record is used only in relation to the individual's employment • Records created and maintained by a law enforcement unit used only for that purpose, is revealed only to law enforcement agencies of the same jurisdiction, and the enforcement unit does not have access to education records • Information obtained when a person is no longer a student (i.e., alumni records) and does not relate to the person as a student.